 | | A surprised Kirk Shelmerdine will make his first Daytona 500 start. Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images |
By Ryan Smithson, NASCAR.COM
February 18, 2006
06:37 PM EST (23:37 GMT)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Kirk Shelmerdine didn't even know he had made the Daytona 500 until he was told by a NASCAR official to roll his car through post-race inspection. "I was prepared for another letdown," said Shelmerdine, owner-driver of arguably the most underfunded operation in the Nextel Cup garage. "We're going to race like hell [Sunday]. I had prepared myself to load up. This is kind of a surprise. If I win it, I am going to retire." It may sound weird, but the end result is simple: Shelmerdine, 46, is in the Daytona 500 because he out-qualified Scott Riggs. Riggs finished 13th in the second Gatorade Duel on Thursday, falling one spot shy of scoring the final transfer spot into Sunday's race. That spot went to Mike Wallace, who beat Riggs to the line by just a few feet. Riggs needed to score the transfer spot because he couldn't rely on his qualifying speed to make it into the show. During his qualifying attempt, his car suffered gear failure, and his speed was only 53rd-best. Shelmerdine's qualifying speed of 185.361 mph didn't draw much notice at the time, but it was than all three Dale Earnhardt Inc. cars, and Shelmerdine will make his first Daytona 500 start. Riggs had raced his way into a position to score a spot in the Daytona 500, but the car fell off the jack during a pit stop with just 11 laps to go. After turning heads with an excellent showing during January testing, Riggs is now headed home. "Everybody at Evernham Motorsports gave me what we needed, that is just the kind of risk you take when you come down here," Riggs said. Another victim of the 150-mile races was Mike Skinner, who also fell one spot short of a Daytona 500 spot. Skinner lost out when he was passed by Bill Elliott in the closing laps. Elliott's run gave MB2 Motorsports three cars in the Daytona 500 field. Skinner will miss his first Daytona 500 since his rookie season in 1997. He was trying to get a Bill Davis Racing Dodge in the field for the second year in a row. "That is tough," Skinner said. "[I] really thought Bill [Elliott] would help me there because he is in anyway. I think Ryan Pemberton [MB2 crew chief for Joe Nemechek] would have helped us out there, but Frankie Stoddard [Elliott's crew chief] worked for Bill Davis, and there must be some bad blood there." Elliott was assured of a Daytona 500 spot because of his qualifying speed, but when he scored the final transfer position, it gave Robby Gordon a Daytona 500 spot. Gordon was assured one of the three final Daytona 500 spots based on speed, but he went on to score a transfer spot in the second race. Gordon's run in the second 150-miler gave Shelmerdine the final spot on speed. In the span of a few minutes, Gordon's quest to become a successful driver-owner in the Nextel Cup Series got a serious shot in the arm. Gordon missed the Daytona 500 last year, and his team never fully recovered. "Definitely a relief for sure," Gordon said. "To make it in the 500 will definitely get the ball rolling. It is hard to keep [team members'] morale up when you miss the biggest race of the year." Kevin Lepage finished 16th in the first Duel and got the final transfer spot from that race. His team, Peak Performance Motorsports, didn't even have a deal together to run the race until a few weeks ago, and it tested here in January without the benefit of any data. "It's a big race and I drove my wheels off," said Lepage, who finished ninth in last year's 500. "I had a real good car and [it] worked good on long runs." | 
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